June 2015
Monday 8th June 2015 – Feeling Positive
We had our follow up appointment at Nuffield Hospital on Friday. It went well and we let feeling very positive. Our consultant started off explaining about what and why they done what they done. He said that they were in two minds on what to do about my dosage of Menopur because my risk of hyper ovarian stimulation and my cysts may rupture therefore putting me into hospital. They have decided to put me on 300 Menopur daily. He said that he would have increased it a bit more normally but because of the risks it is not worth it. As for my hormonal profile there is no reason that I cannot conceive naturally. Leading to the reason of my infertility is solely down to the endometriosis and my cysts. This is a good thing that all we are fighting against is my Endometriosis rather than something that is more underlying. He has recommended that I go on the contraceptive pill for 3 months back to back so not to have a period then in 3 months’ time I will have a Prostrap injection and a week later start the menopur again. This should hopefully continue to reduce the amount of ovarian cysts I get this time he said that they will aim to get fewer eggs (like this time just gone) but good quality this is because if they get more eggs/follicles my risk of hyper ovarian stimulation/ rupturing cysts will increase. The embryos that they manages to collect this time were as follows:-
1 – Immature and not usable
3 – Usable, 2 were very hard shells and had to inject my husbands sperm
Then
1 – Not fertilised
2 – Fertilised and went on to mature
Both surviving embryos done very well he did give the entire breakdown of the cell division however I cannot remember what he said.
One they suspect stopped growing at day 4, the day before transfer. The one they put inside me was really good quality, there was only one more level higher than the quality of this one from what I remember him saying. Unfortunately this means that it was just the odds of that particular embryo. In a was this makes me feel so much better knowing that it was not my body or anything that I done to cause the failure of this cycle. I still am gutted that it did not work though.
Our consultant said that most of the time the first fertility assisted cycle is more of a learning curve as they do not know how a person will react to the drugs/treatment. He said that he feels that is why the government should give 2 or 3 cycles on the NHS not just one. I must admit I am inclined to agree with him. Even if it is just 2 it would be better. We are lucky we have been able to afford one more cycle but this will be it many people would not even be able to afford one cycle, we are lucky that we have been given the chance to get our first cycle on the NHS. Anyway I should stop before I start going down the political route which is not the aim of this at all the aim is to help others in a similar situation to me.
Currently I am waiting to come on my period so I can start the pill and then 3 months from then we can start again mind you would it not be amazing if I did not ‘come on’, if against all the odds I conceived this month. That would be a lottery win. In fact I would take that over a lottery win. Somehow though I doubt that it has happened.
I need to phone my GP and see if she can give me a prescription to get the contraceptive pill.
Saturday 13th June 2015 - letter from Nuffield
I have received a letter from Nuffield Hospital today explaining my consultation
“Barbara has not conceived having gone through a cycle of IVF where we continued with the Zoladex equivalent of Prostrap for down regulation, used Menopure 225 IU daily, had 9 follicles from which 5 oocytes were obtained, 4 had ICSI performed but 2 became degenerate and 2 went through to the blastocyst stage. A good quality blastocyst embryo, stage 3, was transferred and then there was a residual much smaller blastocyst which also became degenerate and could not be stared. Barbara did not conceive and we discussed the future for them.
I have advised going on the contraceptive pill Microgynon, on a back to back fashion at this stage, as we are aware of the 20+mm cysts, one on each side suggestive of endometriomas. When the couple are ready we can give a further Prostrap injection and then 7-10 days later probably go forward and add in menopur at 300 IU daily. I have discussed the possibility of using a higher dose of menopur but my concern about that is with a history of endometriosis one does not want to over stimulate the ovaries and get spontaneous ovarian haemorrhage.
The couple have been asking about two blastocyst embryos transferred and I have explained our caution of transferring two high quality blastocysts embryos but if we had lower quality blastocysts it could be considered on the day. Essentially, if we other embryos that cryostored, we would only be advising transferring one embryo.
The couple are going to take a bit of a break from matters for a while and I have already issued the first prescription for Microgynon but would it be possible to keep her supplied with this as outlined above.
Thursday 25th June 2015 – 10 days late.
Here I am 10 days from the day I was supposed to start my period and still nothing I did say that I will test on Monday if nothing. Saying that I have been getting sharp sudden cramps this past hour and a half but I am unsure if it is my period on its way or just because it was a busy day at work. I have not stopped (not even for a loo break, so busy that I forgot about a loo break and lunch until 30 minutes before I finished my shift) and been on my feet all day. I have another busy day tomorrow and then we have a wedding on Saturday I start work at 8am until 11am and then again at 3pm to 10pm but will be at work all day rather than go home during the split shift. Work on Sunday then hopefully I can die (relax) on Monday.
Tuesday 30th June 2015 – 48 hours
Typically I came on my period on Saturday and it was making up for being light last month and 2 weeks late this month. I was going through a night pad every hour and a half if I was lucky. We had a wedding at work. I managed to get through my killer shift (left for work at 7:15am and got home just after 11:00pm). Unfortunately forcing myself through killed me for the next day. In fact other than a couple of hours I have been in bed since Sunday. The weather has been lovely (28◦C and tomorrow it is meant to hit 33◦C) and I have just been in bed gutted I am missing the summer not able to enjoy the sun in my garden.
I have been taking Solphadine and Ibuprofen but it is just taking the edge of it, nothing significant. I would love to get more than 3 hours sleep.
I had to phone Nuffield hospital to inform them that I have now started the Mycrogynon back to back. I also mentioned that the pain has been going on for 4days continuously now around my ovaries (mostly my left ovary but my right has not been behaving either). The nurse said that she will ask my consultant and get back to me with what he recommends I should do.
I phoned Nuffield about 5:00pm and the nurse said that my consultant recommends that I continue with the Solphadine and Ibuprofen for another 48 hours and if I am still in pain (or if it gets worse) he would like to do a scan on me. So I have 48 hours for this to settle down.
Four months I have managed not to go off sick at work, four whole months and now this. Thank you so much Endometriosis another think I can thank you for.
We had our follow up appointment at Nuffield Hospital on Friday. It went well and we let feeling very positive. Our consultant started off explaining about what and why they done what they done. He said that they were in two minds on what to do about my dosage of Menopur because my risk of hyper ovarian stimulation and my cysts may rupture therefore putting me into hospital. They have decided to put me on 300 Menopur daily. He said that he would have increased it a bit more normally but because of the risks it is not worth it. As for my hormonal profile there is no reason that I cannot conceive naturally. Leading to the reason of my infertility is solely down to the endometriosis and my cysts. This is a good thing that all we are fighting against is my Endometriosis rather than something that is more underlying. He has recommended that I go on the contraceptive pill for 3 months back to back so not to have a period then in 3 months’ time I will have a Prostrap injection and a week later start the menopur again. This should hopefully continue to reduce the amount of ovarian cysts I get this time he said that they will aim to get fewer eggs (like this time just gone) but good quality this is because if they get more eggs/follicles my risk of hyper ovarian stimulation/ rupturing cysts will increase. The embryos that they manages to collect this time were as follows:-
1 – Immature and not usable
3 – Usable, 2 were very hard shells and had to inject my husbands sperm
Then
1 – Not fertilised
2 – Fertilised and went on to mature
Both surviving embryos done very well he did give the entire breakdown of the cell division however I cannot remember what he said.
One they suspect stopped growing at day 4, the day before transfer. The one they put inside me was really good quality, there was only one more level higher than the quality of this one from what I remember him saying. Unfortunately this means that it was just the odds of that particular embryo. In a was this makes me feel so much better knowing that it was not my body or anything that I done to cause the failure of this cycle. I still am gutted that it did not work though.
Our consultant said that most of the time the first fertility assisted cycle is more of a learning curve as they do not know how a person will react to the drugs/treatment. He said that he feels that is why the government should give 2 or 3 cycles on the NHS not just one. I must admit I am inclined to agree with him. Even if it is just 2 it would be better. We are lucky we have been able to afford one more cycle but this will be it many people would not even be able to afford one cycle, we are lucky that we have been given the chance to get our first cycle on the NHS. Anyway I should stop before I start going down the political route which is not the aim of this at all the aim is to help others in a similar situation to me.
Currently I am waiting to come on my period so I can start the pill and then 3 months from then we can start again mind you would it not be amazing if I did not ‘come on’, if against all the odds I conceived this month. That would be a lottery win. In fact I would take that over a lottery win. Somehow though I doubt that it has happened.
I need to phone my GP and see if she can give me a prescription to get the contraceptive pill.
Saturday 13th June 2015 - letter from Nuffield
I have received a letter from Nuffield Hospital today explaining my consultation
“Barbara has not conceived having gone through a cycle of IVF where we continued with the Zoladex equivalent of Prostrap for down regulation, used Menopure 225 IU daily, had 9 follicles from which 5 oocytes were obtained, 4 had ICSI performed but 2 became degenerate and 2 went through to the blastocyst stage. A good quality blastocyst embryo, stage 3, was transferred and then there was a residual much smaller blastocyst which also became degenerate and could not be stared. Barbara did not conceive and we discussed the future for them.
I have advised going on the contraceptive pill Microgynon, on a back to back fashion at this stage, as we are aware of the 20+mm cysts, one on each side suggestive of endometriomas. When the couple are ready we can give a further Prostrap injection and then 7-10 days later probably go forward and add in menopur at 300 IU daily. I have discussed the possibility of using a higher dose of menopur but my concern about that is with a history of endometriosis one does not want to over stimulate the ovaries and get spontaneous ovarian haemorrhage.
The couple have been asking about two blastocyst embryos transferred and I have explained our caution of transferring two high quality blastocysts embryos but if we had lower quality blastocysts it could be considered on the day. Essentially, if we other embryos that cryostored, we would only be advising transferring one embryo.
The couple are going to take a bit of a break from matters for a while and I have already issued the first prescription for Microgynon but would it be possible to keep her supplied with this as outlined above.
Thursday 25th June 2015 – 10 days late.
Here I am 10 days from the day I was supposed to start my period and still nothing I did say that I will test on Monday if nothing. Saying that I have been getting sharp sudden cramps this past hour and a half but I am unsure if it is my period on its way or just because it was a busy day at work. I have not stopped (not even for a loo break, so busy that I forgot about a loo break and lunch until 30 minutes before I finished my shift) and been on my feet all day. I have another busy day tomorrow and then we have a wedding on Saturday I start work at 8am until 11am and then again at 3pm to 10pm but will be at work all day rather than go home during the split shift. Work on Sunday then hopefully I can die (relax) on Monday.
Tuesday 30th June 2015 – 48 hours
Typically I came on my period on Saturday and it was making up for being light last month and 2 weeks late this month. I was going through a night pad every hour and a half if I was lucky. We had a wedding at work. I managed to get through my killer shift (left for work at 7:15am and got home just after 11:00pm). Unfortunately forcing myself through killed me for the next day. In fact other than a couple of hours I have been in bed since Sunday. The weather has been lovely (28◦C and tomorrow it is meant to hit 33◦C) and I have just been in bed gutted I am missing the summer not able to enjoy the sun in my garden.
I have been taking Solphadine and Ibuprofen but it is just taking the edge of it, nothing significant. I would love to get more than 3 hours sleep.
I had to phone Nuffield hospital to inform them that I have now started the Mycrogynon back to back. I also mentioned that the pain has been going on for 4days continuously now around my ovaries (mostly my left ovary but my right has not been behaving either). The nurse said that she will ask my consultant and get back to me with what he recommends I should do.
I phoned Nuffield about 5:00pm and the nurse said that my consultant recommends that I continue with the Solphadine and Ibuprofen for another 48 hours and if I am still in pain (or if it gets worse) he would like to do a scan on me. So I have 48 hours for this to settle down.
Four months I have managed not to go off sick at work, four whole months and now this. Thank you so much Endometriosis another think I can thank you for.